Captain and Sharon Rogers Return Home

Capt. Will C. Rogers III and his wife, Sharon, have moved back into their home on a quiet cul-de-sac in University City after five weeks in protective custody following the March 10 bombing of the van Sharon Rogers was driving.

Navy sources confirmed Thursday that, about a week ago, the couple left the bachelor officers’ quarters at North Island Naval Air Station, where they had been staying since shortly after the bombing. They remain under the protection of the Naval Investigative Service, the sources said. A spokesman for NIS refused to say what protection was being provided.

Federal investigators have speculated that the pipe bombs that exploded under Sharon Rogers’ van may have been planted by terrorists in retaliation for an incident last summer in which her husband, captain of the guided-missile cruiser Vincennes, mistakenly ordered the downing of an Iranian civilian airliner in the Persian Gulf. All 290 people on board were killed.

Other Possible Motives

However, the investigators have not ruled out other motives for the Rogers bombing, such as a disgruntled sailor. No arrests have been made and no suspects have been named.

Sharon Rogers was on her way to her job as a fourth-grade teacher at the exclusive La Jolla Country Day School when the bombs exploded. She escaped injury because she had stepped out of the van at an intersection in La Jolla seconds before the bombs exploded.

Attempts Thursday to reach the Rogerses were unsuccessful.

She has not returned to work and is at an impasse with La Jolla Country Day School administrators, who maintain she is a security threat and have barred her from the campus.

Following a storm of public criticism, administrators backed down and offered her two separate contracts for next fall. One would allow her back on campus if a “substantial” assurance of safety could be provided by the FBI, the NIS and the San Diego Police Department. The other would permit her to return “at the discretion of the headmaster.”

She has termed both offers “completely inadequate” and has demanded immediate reinstatement as a fourth-grade teacher or five years’ pay.

Lawyers for Rogers and the school have been negotiating to reach agreement on a contract.